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Playing
without their best midfielder, sophomore
Ivan Perez
(Chaparral, NV HS) and head coach
Benny Artiaga,
who both received red cards in their last game, the
Cerritos College men’s soccer team looked to a couple of
freshmen to guide them in their 2-1 South Coast
Conference win at East Los Angeles College on Friday.
The win improved the Falcons record to 10-2-4 overall
and 4-0-2 in the SCC. The team will now host Long Beach
City at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday.
Early on,
Cerritos came out with great intensity and immediately
shut down any offensive attempts by the Huskies and
limited them to just one shot in the first half. By
contrast, the Falcons had their fair chances at getting
up early and putting some distance between them and ELAC,
but missed on most of them. One that didn’t miss the net
came in the 20th minute when freshman
Michael Paz
(California HS) threw a deep ball into the box
and sophomore
Jesus Ochoa
(Paramount HS) got his head into it and but the
ball away to the second post for his second goal of the
season.
But, in the
second half, all of what the Falcons had done up until
that point, paled in comparison to the phenomenal goal
that was scored by freshman
Alex Munoz
(Corona Centennial HS). The play started when
sophomore
Leo Munoz (Downey HS) played the ball to
Alex Munoz, who took on two players, including the
outside back with a spin move along the touch line. The
shot didn’t appear to have the right angle to make it in
the net, but he sent it to the second post in the right
upper corner for a goal that gave Cerritos a 2-0 lead.
“I saw the
goalkeeper out of position, but I really didn’t think I
had an angle on the goal,” said Alex Munoz, whose goal
was his fourth on the year. “But I knew we needed to
score one more time, so I took a crack at it.”
Assistant
coaches
Raul
Avellaneda and
Abraham Moran,
who were filling in for Artiaga, agreed. “That goal has
to go down as one of the better goals we have had here
in a long time,” said Avellaneda. As for Moran, he
stated, “That was truly one of the better moves and
goals I have ever seen.”
The Huskies did
get their lone goal in injury time, which ruined the
shutout effort by sophomore goalkeeper
Ivan Mercado
(Paramount HS), who made four saves on the day. |
